IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  MARCH  23,  1848, 

ON    THE    MEXICAN    WAR. 


The  Senate  having  under  consideration  the  bill  from  the  House  of  Representatives  to  authorize  a 
loan  of  $16,000,000,  Mr.  WEBSTER  said- 
Mr.  PRESIDENT:  On  Friday  a  bill  passed  the  Senate  for  raising  ten  regiments  of 
new  troops  for  the  further  prosecution  of  the  war  against  Mexico;  and  we  have  been 
informed  that  that  measure  is  shortly  to  be  followed,  in  this  branch  of  the  Legisla 
ture,  by  a  bill  to  raise  twenty  regiments  of  volunteers  for  the  same  service. 

I  was  desirous  of  expressing  my  opinions  against  the  object  of  these  bills,  against 
the  supposed  necessity  which  leads  to  their  enactment,  and  against  the  general  policy 
which  they  are  apparently  designed  to  promote.  Circumstances,  personal  to  myself, 
but  beyond  my  control,  compelled  me  to  forego,  on  that  day,  the  execution  of  that 
design. 

The  bill  now  before  the  Senate  is  a  measure  for  raising  money  to  meet  the  exi 
gencies  of  the  Government;  and  to  provide  the  means,  as  well  as  for  other  things, 
for  the  pay  and  support  of  these  thirty  regiments. 

Sir,  the  scenes  through  which  we  have  passed,  and  are  passing,  here,  are  various. 
For  a  fortnight,  the  world  supposes,  we  have  been  occupied  with  the  ratification  of 
a  treaty  of  peace;  and  that,  within  these  walls, 

"The  world  shutout," 

notes  of  peace,  and  hopes  of  peace — nay,  strong  assurances  of  peace,  and  indica 
tions  of  peace,  have  been  uttered  to  console  and  to  cheer  us.  Sir,  it  has  been  over 
and  over  stated,  and  is  public,  that  we  have  ratified  a  treaty — of  course,  a  treaty  of 
peace;  and,  as  the  country  has  been  lead  to  suppose,  not  of  an  uncertain,  empty, 
and  delusive  peace;  but  of  real  and  substantial,  a  gratifying  and  an  enduring  peace — 
a  peace  which  should  staunch  the  wound  of  war,  prevent  the  further  flow  of  human 
blood,  cut  off  these  enormous  expenses,  and  return  our  friends  and  our  brothers — 
and  our  children,  if  they  be  yet  living — from  the  land  of  .^laughter,  and  the  land  of 
still  more  dismal  destruction  by  climate,  to  our  firesides  andVour  arms. 

Hardly  had  these  halcyon  notes  ceased  upon  our  ears,  until,-  in  resumed  public 
session,  we  are  summoned  to  fresh  warlike  operations — to  create  a  new  army  of 
thirty  thousand  men,  for  the  further  prosecution  of  the  war;  to  carry  the  war,  in  the 
language  of  the  President,  still  more  dreadfully  into  the  vital  parts  of  the  enemy, 
and  to  press  home,  by  fire  and  sword,  the  claims  we  make,  the  grounds  which  we 
irlsist  upon,  against  our  fallen,  prostrate,  I  had  almost  said,  our  ignoble  enemy. 

If  I  may  judge  from  the  opening  speech  of  the  honorable  Senator  from  Michi 
gan,  and  from  other  speeches  that  have  been  made  upon  this  floor,  there  has  been 
no  time,  from  the  commencement  of  the  war,  when  it  has  been  more  urgently 
pressed  upon  us,  not  only  to  maintain,  but  to  increase  our  military  means — not  only 
to  continue  the  war,  but  to  press  it  still  more  vigorously  than  at  present. 

Pray,  what  does  all  this  mean?  Is  it,  I  ask,  confessed  then — is  it  confessed  that 
we  are  no  nearer  a  peace  than  we  were  when  we  snatched  up  this  bit  of  paper  called, 
or  miscalled,  a  treaty,  and  ratified  it?  Have  we  yet  to  fight  it  out  to  the  utmost,  as 
if  nothing  pacific  had  intervened? 

I  wish,  sir,  to  treat  the  proceedings  of  this,  and  of  every  department  of  the  Gov 
ernment,  with  the  utmost  respect.     God  knows  that  the  Constitution  of  this  Govern 
ment,  ard  the  exercise  of  its  just  powers  in  the  administration  of  the  laws  under  it, 
have  been  the  cherished  object  of  all  my  unimportant  life.     But,  if  the  subject  were 
xnot_one^ioo^deeply  interesting,  I  should  say  our  proceedings  here  may  well  enough 

J.  &  G.  S.  Gideon,  printers. 


2  l. 

cause  a  smile.  In  the  ordinary  transaction  of  the  foreign  relations  of  this  and  of 
all  other  governments,  the  course  has  been  to  negotiate  first,  and  to  ratify  afterwards. 
This  seems  to  be  the  natural  order  of  conducting  intercourse  between  foreign  States. 
We  have  chosen  to  reverse  this  order.  We  ratify  first,  and  negotiate  afterwards. 
We  set  up  a  treaty,  such  as  we  find  it  and  choose  to  make  it,  and  then  send  two 
Ministers  Plenipotentiary  to  negotiate  thereupon  in  the  Capitol  of  the  enemy.  One 
would  think,  sir,  the  ordinary  course  of  proceeding  much  the  juster:  that  to  nego 
tiate,  to  hold  intercourse,  and  come  to  some  arrangement,  by  authorized  agents,  and 
then  to  submit  that,  arrangement  to  the  sovereign  authority  to  which  these  agents  are 
responsible,  would  be  always  the  most  desirable  method  of  proceeding.  It  strikes 
me  that  the  course  we  have  adopted  is  strange — is  grotesque.  So  far  as  I  know,  it 
is  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  diplomatic  intercourse.  Learned  gentlemen,  on 
the  floor  of  the  Senate,  interested  to  defend  and  protect  this  course,  may,  in  their 
extensive  reading,  have  found  examples  of  it.  I  know  of  none. 

Sir,  we  are  in  possession,  by  military  power,  of  New  Mexico  and  California — 
countries  belonging,  hitherto,  to  the  United  States  of  Mexico.  We  are  informed  by 
the  President  that  it  is  his  purpose  to  retain  them,  to  consider  them  as  territory  fit 
to  be  attached,  and  to  be  attached,  to  these  United  States  of  America.  And  our 
military  operations  and  designs,  now.  before  the  Senate,  are  to  enforce  this  claim  of 
the  Executive  of  the  United  States.  We  are  to  compel  Mexico  to  agree  that  the 
part  of  her  dominion  called  New  Mexico,  and  the  other  called  California,  shall  be 
ceded  to  us;  that  we  are  in  possession,  as  is  said,  arid  that  she  shall  yield  her  title 
to  us.  This  is  the  precise  object  of  this  new  army  of  30,000  men.  Sir,  it  is  the 
identical  object,  in  my  judgment,  for  which  the  war  was  originally  commenced — for 
which  it  has  hitherto  been  prosecuted,  and  in  furtherance  of  v  which  this  treaty  is  to 
be  used,  but  as  one  means  to  bring  about  this  general  result — that  general  result  de 
pending  after  all  on  our  own  superior  power,  and  on  the  necessity  of  submitting  to 
any  terms  which  we  may  prescribe  to  fallen,  fallen,  fallen  Mexico! 

Sir,  the  members  composing  the  other  House,  the  more  popular  branch  of  the 
Legislature,  have  all  been  elected  since,  I  had  almost  said,  the  fatal — I  will  say  the 
remarkable — events  of  the  llth  and  13th  days  of  May,  1846.  The  other  House  has 
passed  a  resolution  affirming  that  "the  war  with  Mexico  was  begun  unconstitution 
ally  and  unnecessarily  by  the  Executive  Government  of  the  United  States."  I  con 
cur  in  that  sentiment;  I  hold  that  to  be  the  most  recent  and  authentic  expression  of 
the  will  and  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

There  is,  sir,  another  proposition,  not  so  authentically  announced  hitherto,  but,  in 
my  judgment,  equally  true,  and  equally  capable  of  demonstration,  and  that  is,  that 
this  war  was  begun,  has  been  continued,  and  is  now  prosecuted  for  the  great  and 
leading  purpose  of  the  acquisition  of  new  territory,  out  of  which  to  bring  in  new 
States,  with  their  Mexican  population,  into  this  our  Union  of  the  United  States. 

If  unavowed  at  first,  this  purpose  did  not  remain  unavowed  long.  However  often 
it  may  be  said  that  we  did  not  go  to  war  for  conquest — 


Credat  Judaeus  Apella, 


Non  ego,'' 

Yet  the  moment  we  get  possession  of  territory,  we  must  retain  it,  and  make  it 
our  own.  Nowr  I  think  that  this  original  object  has  not  been  changed — has  not  been 
varied.  Sir,  I  think  it  exists  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  originally  contemplated  it — 
and  \vho  began  the  war  for  it — as  plain,  as  attractive  to  them,  and  from  which  they 
no  more  avert  their  eyes  now  than  they  did  then,  or  have  done  at  any  time  since. 
We  have  compelled  a  treaty  of  cession;  we  know  in  our  consciences  that  it  is  com 
pelled.  We  use  it  as  an  instrument  arid  an  agency,  in  conjunction  with  other  in 
struments  and  other  agencies  of  a  more  formidable  and  destructive  character,  to 
enforce  the  cession  of  Mexican  territory — to  acquire  territory  for  new  States — new 
States  to  be  added  to  this  Union.  We  know,  every  intelligent  man  knows,  that 
there  is  no  stronger  desire  in  the  breast  of  a  Mexican  citizen,  than  to  retain  the  ter 
ritory  which  belongs  to  the  Republic.  We  know  that  the  Mexican  people  will  part 
with  it,  if  part  they  must,  with  regret,  with  pangs  of  sorrow.  That  we  know;  we 
know  it  is  all  forced;  and,  therefore,  because  we  know  it  must  be  forced — because 
we  know  that  whether  the  Government,  which  we  consider  our  creature,  do  or  do 


not  agree  to  it,  we  know  that  the  Mexican  people  will  never  accede  to  the  terms 
this  treaty  but  through  the  impulse  of  absolute  necessity,  and  the  impression  mad( 
upon  them  by  absolute  and  irresistible  force — therefore  we  purpose  to  overwheli 
them  with  another  army.     We  purpose  to  raise  another  army  of  ten  thousand  regu-\ 
lars  and  twenty  thousand  volunteers,  and  to  pour  them  in  and  upon  the  Mexican.' 
people. 

Now,  sir,  I  should  be  happy  to  concur,  notwithstanding  all  this  tocsin,  and  all  this 
cry  of  all  the  Semproniuses  in  the  land,  that  their  "  voices  are  still  for  war," — I 
should  be  happy  to  agree,  and  substantially  I  do  agree,  to  the  opinion  of  the  Senator 
from  South  Carolina.  I  think  I  have  myself  uttered  the  sentiment,  within  a  fort 
night,  to  the  same  effect — that,  after  all,  ike  war  with  Mexico  is  substantially  over — 
that  there  can  be  no  more  fighting.  In  the  present  state  of  things,  my  opinion  is 
that  the  people  of  this  country  will  not  sustain  the  war.  They  will  not  go  for  its 
heavy  expenses;  they  will  not  find  any  gratification  in  putting  the  bayonet  to  the 
throats  of  the  Mexican  people. 

For  my  part  I  hope  the  Ten  Regiment  bill  will  never  become  a  law.  Three  weeks 
ago  I  should  have  entertained  that  hope  with  the  utmost  confidence;  events  instruct 
me  to  abate  my  confidence.  I  still  hope  it  will  not  pass. 

And  here,  I  dare  say,  I  shall  be  called  by  some  a  "Mexican  Whig."  The  man. 
who  can  stand  up  here  and  say  that  he  hopes  that  what  the  Administration  projects, 
and  the  further  prosecution  of  the  war  with  Mexico  requires,  may  not  be  carried 
into  effect,  must  be  an  enemy  to  his  country,  or  what  gentlemen  have  considered ; 
the  same  thing,  an  enemy  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  to  his  Admin 
istration  and  his  party.  He  is  a  Mexican.  Sir,  I  think  very  badly  of  the  Mexican 
:haracter,  high  and  low,  out  and  out;  but  names  do  not  terrify  me.  Besides,  if  I 
lave  suffered  in  this  respect — if  I  have  rendered  myself  subject  to  the  reproaches 
these  stipendiary  presses,  these  hired  abusers  of  the  motives  of  public  men — I 
lave  the  honor,  on  this  occasion,  to  be  in  very  respectable  company.  In  the  vitu- 
oerative,  accusative,  denunciatory  sense  of  that  term,  I  don't  know  a  greater  Mex 
ican  in  this  body  than  the  honorable  Senator  from  Michigan,  the  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Military  Affairs. 

Mr.  CASS.  Will  the  gentleman  be  good  enough  to  explain  what  sort  of  a  Mexican 
[  am  ? 

Mr.  WEBSTER.  That's  exactly  the  thing,  sir,  that  I  now  propose  to  do.  On  the 
resumption  of  the  bill  in  the  Senate  the  other  day,  the  gentleman  told  us  that  its 
arincipal  object  was  to  frighten  Mexico;  it  would  touch  his  humanity  too  much  to 
\urt  her!  He  would  frighten  her — 

Mr.  CASS.    Does  the  gentleman  affirm  that  I  said  that  ? 

Mr.  WEBSTER.    Yes;  twice. 

Mr.  CASS.  No,  sir,  I  beg  your  pardon,  I  did  not  say  it.  I  did  not  say  it  would 
.ouch  my  humanity  to  hurt  her. 

Mr.  WEBSTER.    Be  it  so. 

Mr.  CASS.  Will  the  honorable  Senator  allow  me  to  repeat  my  state.ment  of  the 
)bject  "of  the"  bill?  I  said  it  was  two-fold— -first,  that  it  would  enable  us  to  prosecute 
:he  war,  if  necessary;  and,  second,  that  it  would  show  Mexico  we  were  prepared  to 
lo  so;  and  thus,  by  its  moral  effect,  would  induce  her  to  ratify  the  treaty. 

Mr.  WEBSTER.  The  gentleman  said,  that  the  principal  object  of  the  bill  was  to 
Tighten  Mexico,  and  that  this  would  be  more  humane  than  to  harm,  her. 

Mr.  CASS.    That's  true. 

Mr.  WEBSTER.    It's  true,  is  it? 

Mr.  CASS.    Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  WEBSTER.  Very  well,  I  thought  as  much.  Now,  sir,  the  remarkable  charac- 
.eristic  of  that  speech — that  which  makes  it  so  much  a  Mexican  speech — is,  that  the 
gentleman  spoke  it  in  the  hearing  of  Mexico,  as  well  as  in  the  hearing  of  this  Senate. 
We  are  accused  here,  because  what  we  say  is  heard  by  Mexico,  and  Mexico  derives 
Encouragement  from  what  is  said  here.  And  yet  the  honorable  member  comes  forth 
md  tells  Mexico  that  the  principal  object  of  the  bill  is  to  frighten  her!  The  words 
lave  passed  along  the  wires;  they  are  on  the  Gulf,  and  are  floating  away  to  Vera 
?ruz;  and,  when  they  get  there,  they  will  signify  to  Mexico  that,  "after  all,  ye 


good  Mexicans,  my  principal  object  is  is  frighten  you;  and  to  the  end  that  you  may 
not  be  frightened  too  much,  have  given  you  this  indication  of  my  purpose."  That's 
kind  in  him,  certainly! 

Mr.  President:  You  remember  that  when  Snug  the  joiner  was  to  enact  the  lion, 
and  rage  and  roar  upon  the  stage,  he  was  quite  apprehensive  that  he  might  frighten 
the  Duchess  and  the  ladies  too  much,  for  " there  is  not,"  he  was  told,  "a  more 
fearful  wild  fowl  than  your  lion,  living,"  and  " 'twere  pity  of  his  life,  if  he  should 
terrify  the  ladies;"  and,  therefore,  by  the  advice  of  his  comrade,  Mr.  Nicholas  Bot 
tom,  he  wisely  concluded  that,  in  the  height  and  fury  of  his  effort,  qua  lion,  he  would 
show  one  half  his  face  from  out  the  lion's-  neck,  and  himself  speak  through — saying 
thus,  or  to  the  same  effect,  "Ladies,  or  fair  ladies,  you  think  I  came  hither  as  zlion. 
I  am  no  such  thing!  I  am  a  man,  as  other  men  are — I'm  only  Snug,  the  joiner!" 
(Great  laughter.) 

But,  sir,  in  any  view  of  this  case — in  any  view  of  the  proper  policy  of  this  Gov 
ernment,  to  be  pursued  according  to  any  man's  apprehension  and  judgment — where 
is  the  necessity  for  this  augmentation,  by  regiments,  of  the  military  force  of  the 
country?  I  hold  in  my  hand  here  a  note,  which  I  suppose  to  be  substantially  cor 
rect,  of  the  present  military  force  of  the  United  States.  I  cannot  answer  for  its  en 
tire  accuracy,  but  I  believe  it  to  be  substantially  according  to  fact.  We  have  twen 
ty-five  regiments  of  regular  troops,  of  various  arms;  if  full,  they  would  amount  to 
28,960  rank  and  file,  and,  including  officers,  to  30,296  men.  These,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  600  or  700  men,  are  now  all  out  of  the  United  States  and  in  field  service 
in  Mexico,  and  en  route  to  Mexico.  These  regiments  are  not  full;  casualties  and 
the  climate  have  sadly  reduced  their  numbers.  If  the  recruiting  service  were  now 
to  yield  10,000  men,  it  would  not  more  than  fill  up  these  regiments,  so  that  every 
Brigadier,  and  Colonel,  and  Captain,  should  have  his  appropriate,  his  full  command. 
Here  is  a  call,  then,  on  the  country  now  for  the  enlistment  of  ten  thousand  men,  to 
fill  up  the  regiments  in  the  foreign  service  of  the  United  States. 

I  understand,  sir,  that  there  is  a  report  from  General  Scott — from  General  Scott, 
a  man  who  has  performed  the  most  brilliant  campaign  on  recent  military  record— 
a  man  who  has  warred  against  the  enemy,  warred  against  the  climate,  warred  against 
a  thousand  unpropitious  circumstances — and  has  carried  the  flag  of  his  country  to 
the  capital  of  the  enemy,  honorably,  proudly,  humanely,  to  his  own  permanent 
honor,  and  the  great  military  credit  of  his  country — General  Scott;  and  where  is  he? 
At  Puebla!  at  Puebla!  undergoing  an  inquiry  before  his  inferiors  in  rank,  and  other 
persons  without  military  rank;  while  the  high  powers  he  has  exercised,  and  exer 
cised  with  so  much  distinction,  are  transferred  to  another — I  do  not  say  to  one  un 
worthy  of  them,  but  to  one  inferior  in  rank,  station,  and  experience  to  himself. 

But  General  Scott  reports,  as  I  understand,  that,  in  February,  there  were  twenty 
thousand  regular  troops  under  his  command  and  en  route,  and  we  have  thirty  regi 
ments  of  volunteers  for  the  war.  If  full,  this  would  make  34,000  men,  or,  includ 
ing  officers,  35,000.  So  that,  if  the  regiments  were  full,  there  is  at  this  moment  a 
number  of  troops,  regular  and  volunteer,  of  not  less  than  55,000  or  60,000  men,  in 
cluding  recruits  on  the  way.  And  with  these  20,000  men  in  the  field,  of  regular 
troops,  there  were  also  10,000  volunteers;  making,  of  regulars  and  volunteers  under 
General  Scott,  30,000  men.  The  Senator  from  Michigan  knows  these  things  better 
than  I  do,  but  I  believe  this  is  very  nearly  the  fact.  Now,  all  these  troops  are 
regularly  officered;  there  is  no  deficiency,  in  the  line  or  in  the  staff,  of  officers. 
They  are  all  full.  Where  there  is  any  deficiency  it  consists  of  men. 

Now,  sir,  there  may  be  a  plausible  reason  for  saying  that  there  is  difficulty  in  re 
cruiting  at  home  for  the  supply  of  deficiency  in  the  volunteer  regiments.  It  may  be 
said  that  volunteers  choose  to  enlist  under  officers  of  their  own  knowledge  and  selec 
tion;  they  do  not  incline  to  enlist  as  individual  volunteers,  to  join  regiments  abroad, 
under  officers  of  whom  they  know  nothing.  There  may  be  something  in  that;  but 
pray  what  conclusion  does  it  lead  to,  if  not  to  this,  that  all  these  regiments  must 
moulder  away,  by  casualties  or  disease,  until  the  privates  are  less  in  number  than 
the  officers  themselves. 

But,  however  that  may  be  with  respect  to  volunteers,  in  regard  to  recruiting  for 
the  regular  service,  in  filling  up  the  regiments  by  pay  and  bounties  according  to/ 


existing  laws,  or  new  laws,  if  new  ones  are  necessary,  there  is  no  reason  on  earth 
why  we  should  now  create  500  new  officers,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  10,000  more 
men.  The  officers  are  already  there;  in  that  respect  there  is  no  deficiency.  All 
that  is  wanted  is  men,  an«l  there  is  place  for  the  men;  and  I  suppose  no  gentleman, 
here  or  elsewhere,  thinks  that  recruiting  will  go  on  faster  than  would  be  necessary 
to  fill  up  the  deficiencies  in  the  deficient  regiments  abroad. 

But  now,  sir,  what  do  we  want  of  a  greater  force  than  we  have  in  Mexico  ?  I  am 
not  saying  what  do  we  want  of  a  force  greater  than  we  can  supply,  but  what  is  the 
object  of  bringing  these  new  regiments  into  the  field?  What  do  we  propose?  There 
is  no  army  to  fight.  I  suppose  there  are  not  500  men  under  arms  in  any  part  of 
Mexico;  probably  not  half  that  number,  except  in  one  place.  Mexico  is  prostrate. 
It  is  not  the  Government  that  resists  us.  Why  it  is  notorious  that  the  Govern 
ment  of  Mexico  is  on  our  side — that  it  is  an  instrument  by  which  we  hope  to  establish 
such  a  peace,  and  accomplish  such  a  treaty  as  we  like.  As  far  as  I  understand  the 
matter,  the  Government  of  Mexico  owes  its  life,  and  breath,  and  being,  to  the  sup 
port  of  our  arms,  and  to  the  hope — I  do  not  say  how  inspired — that  some  how  or  other, 
and  at  no  distant  period,  she  will  have  the  pecuniary  means  of  carrying  it  on,  from 
our  three  millions,  or  our  twelve  millions,  or  from  some  of  our  other  millions. 

What  do  we  propose  to  do,  then,  with  these  thirty  regiments  which  it  is  designed 
to  throw  into  Mexico  ?  Are  we  going  to  cut  the  throats  of  her  people  ?  Are  we  to 
thrust  the  sword  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  "  vital  parts'"  of  Mexico  ?  What  is  it 
proposed  to  do  ?  Sir,  I  can  see  no  object  in  it ;  and  yet,  while  we  are  pressed  and 
urged  to  adopt  this  proposition  to  raise  ten  and  twenty  regiments,  we  are  told,  and 
the  public  is  told  and  the  public  believes,  that  we  are  on  the  verge  of  a  safe  and  an 
honorable  peace.  Every  one  looks  every  morning  for  tidings  of  a  confirmed  peace, 
or  of  confirmed  hopes  of  peace.  We  gather  it  from  the  Administration,  and  from 
every  organ  of  the  Administration  from  Dan  to  Beersheba.  And  yet  warlike  pre 
parations,  the  incurring  of  expenses,  the  imposition  of  new  charges  upon  the  Trea 
sury,  are  pressed  here,  as  if  peace  were  not  in  all  our  thoughts — at  least  not  in  any 
-of  our  expectations. 

Now,  sir,  I  propose  to  hold  a  plain  talk  to-day  ;  and  I  say  that,  according  to  my  best 
judgment,  the  object  of  the  bill  is  patronage,  office,  the  gratification  of  friends.  This 
-very  measure  for  raising  ten  regiments,  creates  four  or  five  hundred  officers — colo 
nels,  subalterns,  and  not  them  only — for,  for  all  these  I  feel  some  respect ;  but  there 
are  also  paymasters,  contractors,  persons  engaged  in  the  transportation  service,  com- 
Jtnissaries,  even  down  to  sutlers,  et  id  genus  omne — people  who  handle  the  public 
money  without  facing  the  foe,  one  and  all  of  whom  are  true  descendants,  or  if  not, 
"i  ue  representatives,  of  Ancient  Pistol,  who  said  he  would 

"  Sutler  be 
Unto  the  camp,  and  profits  should  accrue." 

Sir,  I  hope,  with  no  disrespect  for  the  applicants,  and  the  aspirants,  and  the  pa 
triots,  (and  among  them  are  some  sincere  patriots,)  who  would  fight  for  their  coun 
try,  and  those  others  who  are  not  ready  to  fight  but  who  are  willing  to  be  paid — with 
no  disrespect  for  any  of  them  according  to  their  rank  and  station,  their  degree  and 
their  merits — I  hope  they  will  all  be  disappointed.  I  hope  that  as  the  pleasant  sea- 
"son  advances,  the  whole  may  find  it  for  their  interest  to  place  themselves,  of  mild 
mornings,  in  the  cars,  and  take  their  destination  to  their  respective  places  of  honor 
able  private  occupation  and  of  civil  employment.  They  have  my  good  wishes  that 
they  may  find  their  homes  from  the  Avenue  and  the  Capitol,  and  from  the  purlieus 
of  the  President's  House,  in  good  health  themselves,  and  that  they  may  find  their 
families  all  very  happy  to  receive  them.  But,  sir, 

«  Paulo  majora  canamus.1' 

This  war  was  waged  for  the  object  of  creating  new  States,  on  the  southern  frontier 
of  the  United  States,  out  of  Mexican  territory,  and  with  such  population  as  could  be 
i  found  resident  thereupon. 

I  have  opposed  this  object.  I  am  against  all  accessions  of  territory  to  form  new 
States.  And  this  is  no  matter  of  sentimentality,  which  I  am  to  parade  before  mass- 
meetings  or  before  my  constituents  at  home.  It  is  not  a  matter  with  me  of  declama- 


tion,  or  of  regret  or  of  expressed  repugnance.  It  is  a  matter  of  firm,  unchangeable  pur 
pose.  I  yield  nothing  to  the  force  of  circumstances  that  have  occurred,  or  that  I  can 
consider  as  likely  to  occur.  And  therefore  I  say,  sir,  that  if  I  were  asked  to-day 
"whether,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  I  will  take  a  treaty  for  adding  two  new  States  to  the 
Union  on  our  southern  border,  I  say  no — distinctly  NO.  And  I  wish  every  man  in 
the  United  States  to  understand  that  to  be  my  judgment  and  my  purpose. 

I  said  upon  our  southern  border,  because  the  present  proposition  takes  that  locality. 
I  would  say  the  same  of  the  west,  the  northeast,  or  of  any  other  border.  I  resist  to 
day,  and  forever,  and  to  the  end,  any  proposition  to  add  any  foreign  territory,  South, 
or  West,  North  or  East,  to  the  States  of  this  Union,  as  they  are  constituted  and  held 
together  under  the  Constitution.  I  do  not  want  the  colonists  of  England  on  the 
North  ;  and  as  little  do  I  want  the  population  of  Mexico  on  the  South.  I  resist  and 
reject  all,  and  all  with  equal  resolution.  And,  therefore,  I  say  that,  if  the  question 
were  put  to  me  to-day,  whether  I  would  take  peace  under  the  present  state  of  the 
country,  distressed  as  it  is,  during  the  existence  of  war,  odious  as  this  is,  under  cir 
cumstances  so  afflictive  to  humanity,  and  so  disturbing  to  the  business  of  those  whom 
I  represent,  as  now  exist — I  say  still,  if  it  were  put  to  me  whether  I  would  have 
peace,  with  new  States,  I  would  say  no- — no  !  And  that  because,  sir,  there  is  no 
necessity  of  being  driven  into  that  dilemma,  in  my  judgment.  Other  gentlemen 
think  differently.  I  hold  no  man's  conscience  ;  but  I  mean  to  make  a  clean  breast 
of  it  myself;  and  I  protest  that  I  see  no  reason — I  believe  there  is  none — why  we 
cannot  obtain  as  safe  a  peace,  as  honorable  and  as  prompt  a  peace,  without  territory 
as  with  it.  The  two  things  are  separable.  There  is  no  necessary  connexion  between 
them.  Mexico  does  not  wish  us  to  take  her  territory,  while  she  receives  our  money. 
Far  from  it.  She  yields  her  assent,  if  she  yield  at  all,  reluctantly,  and  we  all  know 
it.  It  is  the  result  of  force,  and  there  is  no  man  here  who  does  not  know  that. 
And  let  me  say,  sir,  that  if  this  Trist  paper  shall  finally  be  rejected  in  Mexico,  it  is 
most  likely  to  be  because  those  who  under  our  protection  hold  the  power  there,  can 
not  persuade  the  Mexican  Congress  or  people  to  agree  to  this  cession  of  territory. 
The  thing  most  likely  to  break  up  what  we  now  expect  to  take  place,  is  the  repug 
nance  of  the  Mexican  people  to  part  with  Mexican  territory.  They  would  prefer  to 
keep  their  territory,  and  that  we  should  keep  our  money  ;  as  I  prefer  we  should 
keep  our  money,  and  they  their  territory.  We  shall  see.  I  pretend  to  no  powers  of 
prediction.  I  do  not  know  what  may  happen.  The  times  are  full  of  strange  events. 
I  think  it  certain  that,  if  the  treaty  which  has  gone  to  Mexico  shall  fail  to  be  ratified, 
it  will  be  because  of  the  aversion  of  the  Mexican  Congress,  or  the  Mexican  people, 
to  cede  the  territory,  or  any  part  of  it,  belonging  to  their  Republic. 

I  have  said  that  I  would  rather  have  no  peace  for  the  present  than  to  have  a  peace 
which  brings  territory  for  new  States  ;  and  the  reason  is,  that  we  shall  get  peace  as 
soon  without  territory  as  with  it — more  safe,  more  durable,  and  vastly  more  honor 
able  to  us,  the  Great  Republic  of  the  World. 

But  we  hear  gentlemen  say  we  must  have  some  territory — the  people  demand  it. 
I  deny  it — at  least  I  see  no  proof  of  it  whatever.  I  do  not  doubt  there  are  indivi 
duals  of  an  enterprising  character,  disposed  to  emigrate,  who  know  nothing  about 
New  Mexico  but  that  it  is  far  off,  and  nothing  about  California  but  that  it  is  still  far 
ther  off,  who  are  tired  of  the  dull  pursuits  of  agriculture  and  of  civil  life — that  there 
are  hundreds  and  thousands  of  such  persons  to  whom  whatsoever  is  new  and  distant 
is  attractive.  They  feel  the  spirit  of  borderers,  and  the  spirit  of  a  borderer,  I  take 
it,  is  to  be  tolerably  contented  with  his  condition  where  he  is,  until  somebody  goes 
to  regions  beyond  him ;  and  then  his  eagerness  is  to  take  up  his  traps  and  go  still 
farther  than  he  who  has  thus  got  in  advance  of  him.  With  such  men  the  desire  to 
emigrate  is  an  irresistible  passion.  At  least  so  said  that  great  and  sagacious  observer 
of  human  nature,  M.  Talleyrand,  when  he  travelled  in  this  country  in  1797. 

But  I  say  I  do  not  find  any  where  any  considerable  and  respectable  body  of  per- 
ons  who  want  more  territory,  and  such  territory.     Twenty-four  of  us  last  year  in 
this  House  voted  against  the  prosecution  of  the  war  for  territory,  because  we  did  • 
not  want  it — both  Southern  and  Northern  men.     I  believe  the  Southern  gentlemen 
concurred  in  that  vote  found  themselves,  even  when  they  had  gone  against 


what  might  be  supposed  to  be  local  feelings  and  partialities,  sustained  on  the  gene 
ral  policy  of  not  seeking  territory,  and  by  the  acquisition  of  territory  bringing  into 
our  politics  certain  embarrassing  and  embroiling  questions  and  considerations.  I  do 
not  learn  that  they  suffered  from  the  advocacy  of  such  a  sentiment.  I  believe  they 
•were  supported  in  it;  and  I  believe  that,  through  the  greater  part  of  the  South,  and 
even  of  the  Southwest  to  a  great  extent,  there  is  no  prevalent  opinion  in  favor  of  ac 
quiring  territory,  and  such  territory,  and  of  the  augmentation  of  our  population,  and 
by  such  population.  And  such  I  need  not  say  is,  if  not  the  undivided,  the  prepon 
derating,  sentiment  of  all  the  North. 

But  it  is  said  we  must  take  territory  for  the  sake  of  peace.  We  must  take  terri 
tory.  It  is  the  will  of  the  President.  If  we  do  not  now  take  what  he  offers,  we 
may  fare  worse.  Mr.  Polk  will  take  no  less — that  he  is  fixed  upon.  He"  is  immov 
able.  He — has — put — down — his — foot!  Well,  sir,  he  put  it  down  upon  54  40,  but 
it  didn't  stay.  I  speak  of  the  President,  as  of  all  Presidents,  with  no  disrespect.  I 
know  of  no  reason  why  his  opinion  and  his  will — his  purpose,  declared  to  be  final, 
should  control  us — any  more  than  our  purpose,  from  equally  conscientious  motives, 
and  under  as  high  responsibilities,  should  control  him.  We  think  he  is  firm,  and 
will  not  be  moved.  I  should  be  sorry,  sir,  very  sorry,  indeed,  that  we  should  en 
tertain  more  respect  for  the  firmness  of  the  individual  at  the  head  of  the  Government 
than  we  may  entertain  for  our  own  firmness.  He  stands  out  against  us.  Do  we 
fear  to  stand  out  against  him?  For  one,  I  do  not.  It  appears  to  me  to  be  a  slavish 
doctrine.  For  one  I  am  willing  to  meet  the  issue,  and  go  to  the  people  all  over  this 
broad  land.  Shall  we  take  peace  without  new  States,  or  refuse  peace  without  new- 
States?  I  will  stand  upon  that,  and  trust  the  people.  And  I  do  that  because  I 
think  it  right,  and  because  I  have  no  distrust  of  the  people.  I  am  not  unwilling  to 
put  it  to  their  sovereign  decision  and  arbitration.  I  hold  this  to  be  a  question  vital, 
permanent,  elementary  in  the  future  prosperity  of  the  country  and  the  maintenance 
of  the  Constitution:  and  I  am  willing  to  trust  that  question  to  the  people:  and  I  pre 
fer  it,  because,  if  what  I  take  to  be  a  great  constitutional  principle,  or  what  is  essen 
tial  to  its  maintenance,  is  to  be  broken  down,  let  it  be  the  act  of  the  people  them 
selves;  it  shall  never  be  my  act.  I,  therefore,  do  not  distrust  the  people.  I  am 
willing  to  take  their  sentiment,  from  the  Gulf  to  the  British  provinces,  and  from  the 
Ocean  to  the  Missouri : — Will  you  continue  the  war  for  territory,  to  be  purchased,  after 
all,  at  an  enormous  price,  a  price  a  thousand  times  the  value  of  all  its  purchases;  or 
take  peace,  contenting  yourselves  with  the  honor  AVC  have  reaped  by  the  military 
achievements  of  the  army?  Will  you  take  peace  without  territory,  and  preserve  the 
integrity  of  the  Constitution  of  the  country?  I  am  entirely  willing  to  stand  upon 
that  question.  I  will  therefore  take  the  issue:  Peace,  with  no  new  States,  keeping 
our  money  ourselves,  or  war  till  new  States  shall  be  acquired,  and  vast  sums  paid. 
That's  the  true  issue.  I  am  willing  to  leave  that  before  the  people  and  to  the  people, 
because  it  is  a  question  for  themselves.  If  they  support  me,  and  think  with  me,  very 
well.  If  otherwise — if  they  will  have  territory,  and  add  new  States  to  the  Union,  let 
them  do  so;  and  let  them  be  the  artificers  of  their  own  fortune,  for  good  or  for  evil. 

But,  sir,  we  tremble  before  Executive  power.  The  truth  cannot  be  concealed. 
Wre  trejnble  before  Executive  power!  Mr.  Polk  will  take  no  less  than  this.  If  we 
do  not  take  this,  the  King's  anger  may  kindle,  and  he  will  give  us  what  is  worse. 

But  now,  sir,  who  and  what  is  Mr.  Polk?  I  speak  of  him  with  no  manner  of  dis 
respect.  I  mean,  thereby,  only  to  ask  who  and  what  is  the  President  of  the  United 
States  for  the  current  moment.  He  is  in  the  last  year  of  his. administration.  For 
mally,  officially,  it  can  only  be  drawn  out  till  the  4th  of  March.  While  really  and 
substantially  we  know  that  two  short  months  will,  or  may,  produce  events  that  will 
render  the  duration  of  that  official  term  of  very  little  importance.  We  are  on  the 
eve  of  a  Presidential  election.  That  machine  wrhich  is  resorted  to  to  collect  public 
opinion  or  party  opinion,  will  be  put  in  operation  two  months  hence.  We  shall  see 
its  result.  It  may  be  that  the  present  incumbent  of  the  Presidential  office  will  be 
again  presented  to  his  party  friends  and  admirers  for  their  suffrages  for  the  next 
Presidential  term.  I  do  not  say  how  probable  or  improbable  this  is.  Perhaps  it  is 
not  entirely  probable.  Suppose  this  not  to  be  the  result — what  then?  Why,  then, 


Mr.  Polk  becomes  as  absolutely  insignificant  as  any  respectable  man  among  the  pub 
lic  men  of  the  United  States.  Honored  in  private  life,  valued  for  his  private  cha 
racter — respectable,  never  eminent,  in  public  life — he  will,  from  the  moment  a  new 
star  arises,  have  just  as  little  influence  as  you  or  I;  and,  so  far  as  myself  am  con 
cerned,  that  certainly  is  little  enough. 

Sir,  political  partisans,  and  aspirants,  and  office-seekers,  are  not  sunflowers.  They 
do  not 

u turn  to  their  God  when  he  sets, 

The  same  look  which  they  turned  when  he  rose." 

No,  sir,  if  the  respectable  gentleman  now  at  the  head  of  the  Government  be 
agreed  upon,  there  will  be  those  who  will  commend  his  consistency — who  will  be 
bound  to  maintain  it — for  the  interest  of  his  party-friends  will  require  it.  It  will  be 
done.  If  otherwise,  who  is  there  in  the  whole  breadth  and  length  of  the  land  that 
will  care  for  the  consistency  of  the  present  incumbent  of  the  office?  There  will  then 
be  new  objects.  "Manifest  destiny"  will  have  pointed  out  some  other  man.  Sir, 
the  eulogies  are  now  written — the  commendations  of  praise  are  already  elaborated. 
I  do  not  say  everything  fulsome,  but  everything  panegyrical,  has  already  been  writ 
ten  out,  with  blanks  for  names,  to  be  filled  when  the  Convention  shall  adjourn. 
When  "manifest  destiny"  shall  be  unrolled,  all  these  strong  panegyrics,  wherever 
they  may  light,  made  beforehand,  laid  up  in  pigeon  holes,  studied,  framed,  embla 
zoned,  and  embossed,  shall  all  come  out;  and  then  there  will  be  found  to  be  some 
body  in  the  United  States  whose  merits  have  been  strangely  overlooked — marked 
out  by  Providence,  a  kind  of  miracle — while  all  will  wonder  that  nobody  ever 
thought  of  him  before — as  a  fit  and  the  only  fit  man  to  be  at  the  head  of  this  great 
Republic! 

I  shrink  not,  therefore,  from  any  thing  that  I  feel  to  be  my  duty,  from  any  appre 
hension  of  the  importance  and  imposing  dignity,  and  the  power  of  will,  ascribed  to 
the  present  incumbent  of  office.  But  I  wish  we  possessed  that  power  of  will.  I  wish 
we  had  that  firmness — firmness — firmness — 

"Si  sit, — nullum  nuinen  absit." 

Yes,  sir,  I  wish  we  had  adherence.  I  wish  we  could  gather  something  from  the 
spirit  of  our  brave  corps,  who  have  met  the  enemy  under  circumstances  most  ad 
verse,  and  have  stood  the  shock.  I  wish  we  could  imitate  Zachary  Taylor  in  his 
bivouac  on  the  field  of  Buena  Vista.  He  said  he  "would  remain  for  the  night;  he 
would  feel  the  enemy  in  the  morning,  and  try  his  position."  I  wish,  before  we  sur 
render,  we  could  make  up  our  minds  to  "feel  the  enemy  and  try  his  position,"  and 
I  think  we  should  find  him,  as  Taylor  did,  under  the  early  sun,  on  his  way  to  San 
Louis  Potosi.  That's  my  judgment. 

But,  sir,  I  come  to  the  all-absorbing  question,  more  particularly,  of  the  creation  of 
new  States. 

When  I  came  into  the  counsels  of  the  country,  Louisiana  had  been  obtained  un 
der  the  treaty  with  France.  Shortly  after,  Florida  was  obtained  under  the  treaty 
with  Spain.  These  two  countries,  we  know,  of  course,  lay  on  our  frontier,  and 
commanded  the  outlets  of  the  great  rivers  which  flow  into  the  gulf.  As  I  have  had 
occasion  to  say,  in  the  first  of  these  instances,  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
(Mr.  JEFFERSON,)  supposed  that  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  vras  required. 
He  acted  upon  that  supposition.  Mr.  Madison  was  Secretary  of  State,  and,  upon 
the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  proposed  that  the  proper  amendment  to  the  Consti 
tution  should  be  submitted  to  bring  Louisiana  into  the  Union.  Mr.  Madison  drew  it 
and  submitted  it  to  Mr.  Adams,  as  I  have  understood.  Mr.  Madison  did  not  go 
upon  any  general  idea  that  new  States  might  be  admitted;  he  did  not  proceed  to  a 
general  amendment  of  the  Constitution  in  that  respect.  But  the  amendment  of  the 
Constitution,  which  he  proposed  and  submitted  to  Mr.  Adams,  was  a  simple  decla 
ration,  by  a  new  article,  that  "The  province  of  Louisiana  is  hereby  declared  to  be 
part  and  parcel  of  the  United  States."  Public  opinion,  seeing  the  great  importance 
of  the  acquisition,  took  a  turn  favorable  to  the  affirmation  of  the  power.  The  act 
was  acquiesced  in,  and  Louisiana  became  a  part  of  the  Union. 

On  the  example  of  Louisiana,  Florida  was  admitted. 

Now,  sir,  I  consider  those  transactions  as  passed,  settled,  legalized.     There  they 


ctand  as  matters  of  political  history.     They  are  facts  against  which  it  would  be  idle 
at  this  day  to  contend. 

My  first  agency  in  these  matters  was  upon  the  proposition  for  admitting  Texas  into 
this  Union.  That  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  oppose,  upon  the  general  ground  of  op 
posing  all  annexation  of  new  States  out  of  foreign  territory;  and  I  may  add,  and  I 
ought  to  add  in  justice,  of  States  in  which  slaves  were  to  be  represented  in  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States,  on  the  ground  of  its  inequality.  It  happened  to  me,  sir, 
to  be  called  upon  to  address  a  political  meeting  in  New  York,  in  1837  or  1838,  after 
the  recognition  of  Texan  independence.  I  state  now,  sir,  what  I  have  often  stated 
before,  that  no  man,  from  the  first,  has  been  a  more  sincere  well-wisher  to  the  Gov 
ernment  and  the  people  of  Texas  than  myself.  1  looked  upon  the  achievement  of 
their  independence  in  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto  as  an  extraordinary,  almost  a  mar 
vellous,  incident  in  the  affairs  of  mankind.  I  was  among  the  first  disposed  to  acknow 
ledge  her  independence.  But  from  the  first,  down  to  this  moment,  I  opposed,  as 
far  as  I  was  able,  the  annexation  of  new  States  to  this  Union.  I  stated  my  reasons, 
on  the  occasion  now  referred  to,  in  language  which  I  have  now  before  me,  and 
which  I  beg  to  present  to  the  Senate :  4*kirv*mfr  I  *K 

"  It  cannot  be  disguised,  gentlemen,  that  a  desire  or  intention  is  already  manifested  to  annex  Texas 
to  the  United  States.  On  a  subject  of  such  mighty  magnitude  as  this,  and  at  a  moment  when  public 
attention  is  drawn  to  it,  I  should  feel  myself  wanting  in  candor  if  I  did  not  express  my  opinion  ;  since 
all  must  suppose  that,  on  such  a  question,  it  is  impossible  I  should  be  without  some  opinion. 

"  I  say  then,  gentlemen,  in  all  frankness,  that  I  see  objections — I  think  insurmountable  objections—- 
to  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  the  United  States.  When  the  Constitution  was  formed,  it  is  not  proba 
ble  that  either  its  framers  or  the  people  ever  looked  to  the  admission  of  any  States  into  the  Union,  ex 
cept  such  as  then  already  existed,  and  such  as  should  be  formed  out  of  territories  then  already  belong 
ing  to  the  United  Stcites.  Fifteen  years  afier  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  however,  the  case  of 
Louisiana  arose.  Louisiana  was  obtained  by  treaty  with  France,  who  had  recently  obtained  it  from 
'Spain  ;  but  the  object  of  this  acquisition,  certainly,  was  not  mere  extension  of  territory  ;  other  great 
political  interests  were  connected  with  it.  Spain,  while  she  possessed  Louisiana,  had  held  the  mouths 
of  the  great  rivers  which  rise  in  the  Western  Suites  and  flow  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  She  had  dis 
puted  our  use  of  these  rivers  already,  and,  with  a  powerful  nation  in  possession  of  these  outlets  to  the 
sea,  it  is  obvious  that  the  commerce  of  all  the  West  was  in  danger  of  perpetual  vexation.  The  com 
mand  of  these  rvers  to  the  sea  was,  therefore,  the  great  object  aimed  at  in  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana; 
but  that  acquisition  naturally  brought  territory  along  with  it,  and  three  States  now  exist  formed  out 
of  that  ancient  province. 

"  A  similar  policy,  and  a  similar  necessity,  though  perhaps  not  entirely  so  urgent,  led  to  the  acqui 
sition  of  Florida. 

"Now,  no  such  necessity,  no  such  policy,  requires  the  annexation  of  Texas.  The  accession  of 
Texas  to  our  Territory  is  not  necessary  to  the  full  and  complete  enjoyment  of  all  which  we  already 
possess.  Her  case,  therefore,  stands  entirely  different  from  that  of  Louisiana  and  Florida.  There 
being,  then,  no  necessity  for  extending  the  limits  of  the  Union  in  that  direction,  we  ought,  I  think,  for 
numerous  and  powerful' reasons,  to  be  content  with  our  present  boundaries. 

"  Gentlemen,  we  all  see  that,  by  whomsoever  possessed,  Texas  is  likely  to  be  a  slaveholding  coun 
try  ;  and  1  frankly  avow  my  entire  unwillingness  to  do  anything  which  shall  extend  the  slavery  of  the 
African  race  on  this  continent,  or  add  other  slaveholding  States  to  the  Union.  When  I  say  that  I  re 


stitution  found  it  among  us  ;  it  recognised  it,  and  gave  it  solemn  guarantees.  To  the  full  extent  of 
*  these  guarantees,  we  are  all  bound,  in  honor,  in  justice,  and  by  the  Constitution.  AH  the  stipulations 
contained  in  the  Constitution,  in  favor  of  the  slaveholding  States,  which  are  already  in  the  Union, 
ou^ht  to  b*f  fulfilled  in  the  fullness  of  their  spirit,  and  to  the  exactness  of  their  letter,  blavery,  as  il 
exists  in  the  States,  is  beyond  the  reach  of  Congress ;  it  is  a  concern  of  the  States  themselves  ;  they 
have  never  submitted  it  to  Congress,  and  Congress  has  no  rightful  power  over  it.  I  shall  concur, 
therefore,  in  no  act,  no  measure,  no  menace,  no  indication  of  purpose  which  shall  interfere,  or  threaten 
to  interfere,  with  the  exclusive  authority  of  the  several  States  over  the  subject  of  slavery  as  it  exists 
within  their  respective  limits.  All  this  appears  to  me  to  be  matter  of  plain  and  imperative  duty. 

"  But  when  tfe  come  to  speak  of  admitting  new  States,  the  subject  assumes-an  entirely  different  as 
pect.     Our  righrs  and  our  duties  are  then  both  different. 

"  The  free  States,  and  all  the  States,  are  then  at  liberty  to  accept  or  to  reject.     When  it  is  propoi 
to  bring  new  members  into  this  political  partnership,  the  old  members  have  a  right  to  say  o 
terms  such  new  partners  are  to  come  in,  and  what  they  are  to  bring  along  with  them.     In  my  c 
the  people  of  the  United  States  will  not  consent  to  brins:  a  new,  vastly  extensive,  and  sliivehold 
country,  lar-e  ei!OU2h  for  half  a  dozen  or  dozen  States,  into  the  Union.     In  my  opinion  they  ought 
t  not  to  consent  to  it.'"  Indeed,  I  am  altogether  at  a  loss  to  conceive  what  possible  benefit  any  par 
this  country  can  expect  to  derive  from  such  annexation  ;  all  benefit  to  any  part  is  at  least  doubt 
uncertain  ;  the  objections  obvious,  r>lain,  and  strong.     On  the  general  question  of  slavery,  a  g 
tion  of  the  community  is  already  stWly  excited.     The  subject  has  not  only  attracted  attentioi      i  a 
question  of  politics,  but  it  has  struck  a^far  deeper-toned  chord.    It  has  arrested  the  religious  feeling  01 


10 

the  country ;  it  has  taken  strong  hold  on  the  consciences  of  men.  He  is  a  rash  man,  indeed,  and  little 
conversant  with  human  nature,  and  especially  has  he  a  very  erroneous  estimate  of  the  character  of 
the  people  of  this  country,  who  supposes  that  a  feeling  of  this  kind  is  to  be  trifled  with  or  despised. 
-It  will  assuredly  cause  itself  to  be  respected.  It  may  be  reasoned  with,  it  may  be  made  willing,  I  be 
lieve  it  is  entirely  willing,  to  fulfil  all  existing  engagements,  and  all  existing  duties,  to  uphold  and  de 
fend  the  Constitution  as  it  is  established,  with  whatever  regrets  about  some  provisions  which  it  does 
actually  contain;  but  to  coerce  it  into  silence,  to  endeavor  to  restrain  its  free  expression,  to  seek  to 
compress  and  confine  it,  warm  as  it  is,  and  more  heated  as  such  endeavors  would  inevitably  render  it — 
should  all  this  be  attempted,  I  know  nothing,  even  in  the  Constitution  or  the  Union  itself,  which  would* 
not  be  endangered  by  the  explosion  which  might  follow. 

"  I  see,  therefore,  no  political  necessity  for  the  annexation  of  Texas  to  the  Union;  no  advantages  to* 
be  derived  from  it;  and  objections  to  it,  of  a  strong,  and  in  my  judgment,  decisive  character. 

*'  I  believe  it  to  be  for  the  interest  and  happiness  of  the  whole  Union  to  remain  as  it  is,  without  di 
minution  and  without  addition." 

Well,  sir,  for  a  few  years  I  held  a  position  in  the  Executive  administration  of  the 
Government.  I  left  the  Department  of  State  in  1843,  in  the  month  of  May.  Within 
a  month  after  another,  an  intelligent  gentleman,  for  whom  I  cherished  a  high  respect, 
and  who  came  to  a  sad  and  untimely  end,  had  taken  my  place,  I  had  occasion  to 
know — not  officially,  but  from  circumstances — that  the  annexation  of  Texas  was 
taken  up  by  Mr.  Tyler's  administration  as  an  administration  measure.  It  was  push- 
ed,  pressed,  insisted  on;  and  I  believe  the  honorable  gentleman  to  whom  I  have  re 
ferred  (Mr.  UPSHUR)  had  something  like  a  passion  for  the  accomplishment  of  this 
purpose.  And  I  am  afraid  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  at  that  time  suf 
fered  his  ardent  feelings  not  a  little  to  control  his  more  prudent  judgment.  At  any 
rate,  I  saw,  in  1843,  that  annexation  had  become  a  purpose  of  the  administration.  I 
was  not  in  Congress  nor  in  public  life.  But  seeing  this  state  of  things,  I  thought  it 
my  duty  to  admonish — so  far  as  I  could — the  country  of  the  existence  of  that  pur 
pose.  There  are  gentlemen — many  of  them  at  the  North — there  are  gentlemen  now 
in  the  Capitol,  who  know,  that  in  the  summer  of  1843,  being  fully  persuaded  that 
this  purpose  was  embraced  with  zeal  and  determination  by  the  Executive  Department 
of  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  I  thought  it  my  duty,  and  asked  them  to 
concur  with  me  in  the  attempt,  to  let  that  purpose  be  known  to  the  country.  I  con 
ferred  with  gentlemen  of  distinction  and  eminence.  I  proposed  means  of  exciting 
public  attention  to  the  question  of  annexation,  before  it  should  have  become  a  party 
question;  for  I  had  learned  that  when  any  topic  becomes  a  party  question,  it  is  in 
vain  to  argue  upon  it. 

But  the  optimists,  and  the  quietists,  and  those  who  said  all  things  are  well,  and  let 
all  things  alone,  discouraged,  discountenanced,  and  repressed  any  such  effort.  The 
North,  they  said,  could  take  care  of  itself;  the  country  could  take  care  of  itself — and 
would  not  sustain  Mr.  Tyler  in  his  project  of  annexation.  When  the  time  should 
come,  they  said,  the  power  of  the  North  would  be  felt,  and  would  be  found  sufficient 
to  resist  and  prevent  the  consummation  of  the  measure.  And  I  could  now  refer  to 
paragraphs  and  artices  in  the  most  respectable  and  leading  journals  of  the  North,  in 
which  it  was  attempted  to  produce  the  impression  that  there  was  no  danger — there 
could  be  no  addition  of  new  States — and  men  need  not  alarm  themselves  about  that. 

I  was  not  in  Congress,  sir,  when  the  preliminary  resolutions,,  providing  for  annex 
ing  Texas,  passed.  I  only  know  that,  up  to  a  very  short  period  before  the  passage 
of  those  resolutions,  the  impression,  in  that  part  of  the  country  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  was,  that  no  such  measure  could  be  adopted.  But  I  have  found  in  the  course 
of  thirty  years'  experience,  that  whatever  measures  the  Executive  Government  may 
embrace  and  push,  are  quite  likely  to  succeed  in  the  end.  There  is  always  a  giving 
way  somewhere.  The  Executive  Government  acts  with  uniformity — with  steadiness 
— with  entire  unity  of  purpose.  And  sooner  or  later,  often  enough,  and  according  to 
my  construction  of  our  histor}r,  quite  too  often,  it  affects  its  purposes.  In  this  way 
it  becomes  the  predominating  power  of  the  Government. 

Well,  sir,  just  before  the  commencement  of  the  present  Administration,  the  reso 
lutions  for  the  annexation  of  Texas  were  passed  in  Congress.  Texas  complied  with 
the  provisions  of  those  resolutions,  and  was  here,  or  the  case  was  here,  on  the  2'2d 
day  of  December,  1845,  for  her  final  admission  into  the  Union,  as  one  of  the  States. 
I  took  occasion  then  to  say: 


11 

{fMr.  President,  there  is  no  citizen  of  this  country  who  was  more  kindly  disposed  towards  the 
people  of  Texas  than  myself,  from  the  time  they  achieved,  in  so  very  extraordinary  a  manner,  their 
independence  from  the  Mexican  government.  I  have  shown,  I  hope,  in  another  place,  and  shall  show 
in  all  situations,  and  under  all  circumstances,  a  just  and  proper  regard  for  the  people  of  that  country  ; 
but,  with  respect  to  its  annexation  to  this  Union,  it  is  well  known  that,  from  the  first  announcement 
of  any  such  idea,  I  have  felt  it  my  duty  steadily,  uniformly,  and  zealously  to  oppose  it.  I  have  ex 
pressed  opinions  and  urged  arguments  against  it,  everywhere,  and  on  all  occasions  on  which  the  sub 
ject  came  under  consideration.  I  could  not  now,  if  I  were  to  go  over  the  whole  topic  again,  adduce 
any  new  views,  or  support  old  views,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  by  any  new  arguments  or  illustrations. 
My  efforts  have  been  constant  and  unwearied  ;  but,  like  those  of  others,  they  have  failed  of  success. 
I  will,  therefore,  sir,  in  very  few  words,  acting  under  the  unanimous  resolution  and  instructions  of 
both  branches  of  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  as  well  as  in  conformity  to  my  own  settled  judg 
ment  and  full  conviction,  recapitulate  before  the  Senate  and  before  the  community,  the  objections 
which  have  prevailed,  and  must  always  prevail,  with  me  against  this  measure  of  annexation.  Tn  the 
first  place,  I  have,  on  the  deepest  reflection,  long  ago  come  to  the  conclusion,  that  it  was  of  very  dan 
gerous  tendency  and  doubtful  consequences,  to  enlarge  the  boundaries  of  this  Government  or  the  ter 
ritories  over  which  our  laws  are  now  established.  There  must  be  some  limit  to  the  extent  of  our  ter 
ritory,  if  we  would  make  our  institutions  permanent.  And  in  this  permanency  lives  the  great  subject 
of  all  my  political  efforts,  the  paramount  object  of  my  political  regard.  The  Government  is  very 
likely  to  be  endangered,  in  my  opinion,  by  a  further  enlargement  of  its  already  vast  territorial  surface. 

"In  the  next  place,  I  have  always  wished  that  this  country  should  exhibit  to  the  nations  of  the 
earth  the  example  of  a  great,  rich,  and  powerful  republic,  which  is  not  possessed  by  a  spirit  of  ag 
grandizement.  It  is  an  example,  I  think,  due  from  us  to  the  world,  in  favor  of  the  character  of  repub 
lican  government. 

"  In  the  third  place,  sir,  I  have  to  say,  that  while  I  hold,  with  as  much  integrity,  I  trust,  and  faith 
fulness  as  any  citizen  of  this  country,  to  all  the  original  arrangements  and  compromises  in  which  the 
Constitution  under  which  we  now  live  was  adopted,  I  never  could,  and  never  can,  persuade  myself  to- 
be  in  favor  of  the  admission  of  other  States  into  the  Union,  as  slave  States,  with  the  inequalities  which 
were  allowed  and  accorded  to  the  slaveholding  States  then  in  existence,  by  the  Constitution.  I  do  not 
think  that  the  free  States  ever  expected,  or  could  expect,  that  they  would  be  called  on  to  admit  further 
slave  State-i,  having  the  advantages,  the  unequal  advantages,  arising  to  them  from  the  mode  of  appor 
tioning  representation  under  the  existing  Constitution. 

"  Sir,  I  have  never  made  an  effort,  and  never  propose  to  make  an  effort ;  I  have  never  countenanced 
an  effort,  and  never  mean  to  countenance  an  effort,  to  disturb  the  arrangements  as  originally  made,  by 
which  the  various  States  came  into  the  Union  ;  but  I  cannot  avoid  considering  it  quite  a  different  ques 
tion  when  a  proposition  is  made  to  admit  new  Stales,  and  that  they  be  allowed  to  come  in  with  the 
same  advantages  and  inequalities  which  existed  in  regard  to  the  old." 

Now,  sir,  as  I  have  said,  in  all  this  I  acted  under  resolutions  of  the  State  of  Massa 
chusetts — certainly  concurring  with  my  own  judgment, — so  often  repeated  and  re 
affirmed  by  the  unanimous  consent  of  all  men  of  all  parties,  that  I  could  not  well  go 
through  the  series,  affirming  not  only  the  impolicy,  but  the  unconstitutionality  of 
such  annexation.  And  the  case  presented  is  this:  If  a  State  proposed  to  come  in. 
comes  in  as  a  slave  State,  it  increases  that  inequality  in  the  condition  of  the  people 
which  already  exists,  and  which,  so  far  as  it  exists,  I  would  never  attempt  to  alter, 
which  I  would  preserve  by  my  vote  and  by  whatever  influence  I  might  possess.  Be 
cause  it  was  a  part  of  the  original  compact — let  it  stand. 

But  there  is  another  consideration  of  vastly  more  general  importance  even  than 
that, — more  general  because  it  affects  all  the  States,  free  and  slaveholding;  and  that 
is,  if  the  States,  formed  out  of  territory  thus  thinly  peopled,  come  in,  they  necessa 
rily,  inevitably  break  up  the  relation  existing  between  the  two  branches  of  the  Le 
gislature  and  destroy  its  balance.  They  break  up  the  constitutional  relation  between 
the  Senate"  and  House  of  Representatives.  If  you  bring  in  new  States,  every  State 
that  comes  in  must  have  two  Senators, — while  it  may  have  50,000  or  60,000  people, 
and  no  more.  You  will  thus  have  several  States  which  shall  have  more  Senators 
than  Representatives.  Can  any  thing  occur  (o  disfigure  and  derange  the  frame  of 
government  under  which  we  live  more  than  that?  Here  will  be  a  Senate  bearing  no 
proportion  to  the  people — out  of  all  relation — a  Senate  formed  by  the  addition  of  new 
States  which  may  have  only  one  representative  while  it  has  two  Senators,  while 
others  have  ten,  fifteen,  thirty  representatives,  and  but  two  Senators.  A  Senate 
added  to,  augmented  by  these  new  Senators  from  States  where  there  are  few  people, 
becomes  an  odious  oligarchy.  It  holds  power  without  adequate  constituency.  Sir, 
it  is  but  borough-monger  ing  on  a  large  scale. 

Now,  sir,  I  do  not  depend  on  theory.  I  ask  you  and  I  ask  the  Senate  and  the  country  to 
look  at  facts — to  see  where  we  were  when  we  made  the  departure  three  years  ago,  and 
where  we  now  are,  and  I  shall  leave  it  to  imagination  to  conjecture  where  we  shall  be. 


12 

We  admitted  Texas  as  one  State  for  the  present.  But  if  you  will  refer  to  the  re~ 
solutions  providing  for  the  annexation  of  Texas,  you  will  find  a  provision  that  it  shall 
be  in  the  power  of  Congress  hereafter  to  make  four  other  new  States  out  of  Texan 
territory.  Present  and  prospectively,  therefore,  five  new  States,  sending  ten  Sena 
tors,  may  come  into  the  Union  out  of  Texas.  Three  years  ago  we  did  that.  Now 
we  propose  to  make  two  States;  for  undoubtedly  if  we  take  what  the  President  re 
commends,  New  Mexico  and  California,  each  will  make  a  State, — so  that  there  will 
"be  four  Senators.  We  shall  have  then,  in  this  new  territory,  seven  States,  sending 
fourteen  Senators  to  this  Chamber.  Now  what  will  be  the  relation  between  the 
Senate  and  the  people,  or  the  States  from  which  they  come? 

I  do  not  understand  that  there  is  any  accurate  census  of  Texas.  It  is  generally 
supposed  to  contain  150,000  persons.  I  doubt  whether  it  is  over  100,000,  but  call 
it  150,000.  Well,  sir,  Texas  is  not  destined  to  be  a  country  of  dense  population. 
Suppose  it  to  have  150,000  people.  By  the  best  accounts,  (and  I  have  gone  over 
all  I  can  find,)  New  Mexico  may  have  60  or  70,000  inhabitants,  such  as  they  are — 
say  70,000.  In  California  it  is  supposed  there  are  but  25,000  now;  but  undoubtedly 
if  it  become  ours,  persons  originally  from  the  Western  country  will  emigrate  to  the 
neighborhood  of  San  Francisco,  where  there  is  some  good  land  and  some  interesting 

o  •*  o  o 

country — and  they  may  reach  60  or  70,000.  Put  them  down  for  70,000.  We  have 
then  in  the  whole  territory,  upon  this  estimate,  which  is  as  large  as  any  man  puts  it, 
290,000  people;  and  they  may  send  us,  whenever  we  ask  for  them,  14  Senators.  Less 
than  the  population  of  Vermont,  and  not  one  eighth  part  that  of  New  York!  Four 
teen  Senators  and' no  more  people  than  Vermont — no  more  people  than  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  not  so  many  as  the  good  State  of  New  Jersey!  But,  then,  Texas  claims  to 
the  line  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  to  run  along  that  river;  and  if  that  be  her  true  line, 
then  of  course  she  absorbs  a  considerable,  the  greater  part  of  that  which  is  now  called 
New  Mexico.  I  shall  not  argue  that  question  of  the  true  south  or  western  line  of 
Texas.  I  will  only  say,  what  must  be  apparent  to  every  body  who  will  look  at  the 
.map,  and  learn  anything  of  the  matter,  that  New  Mexico  cannot  be  divided  by  the 
Rio  Grande,  a  shallow,  fordable  river,  creeping  along  a  narrow  valley,  at  the  base  of 
•enormous  mountains.  New  Mexico  must  remain  together,  and  be  a  State,  with 
60,000  people,  and  so  it  will  be,  and  so  will  be  California. 

Suppose  Texas  to  remain  a  unit  for  the  present — let  it  be  one  State  for  the  pre- 
isent,  still  we  shall  have  three  States,  Texas,  New  Mexico,  and  California;  and  we 
shall  have  then  six  Senators  for  less  than  300,000  people.  We  shall  have  as  many 
for  those  300,000  whom  they  will  represent,  as  for  New  Yerk,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Ohio,  with  their  four  or  five  millions  of  people;  and  that's  what  you  call  equal  gov 
ernment!  Is  not  this  enormous?  Have  gentlemen  considered  it — have  they  looked 

tf 

at  it  ?  Are  they  willing  to  look  it  in  the  face  and  then  say  they  embrace  it?  I 
trust  in  God  that  the  people  will  look  at  it,  consider  it,  and  reject  it. 

And  let  me  add  that  this  disproportion  can  never  be  diminished.  It  must  remain 
forever.  How  will  you  go  to  work  to  diminish  it?  Texas,  with  her  150,000  people, 
forms  one  State.  Suppose  population  to  flow  in,  where  will  it  go?  Not  to  the 
densely  settled  portions,  but  it  will  spread  over  the  whole  region;  it  will  go  to  places 
remote  from  the  Gulf,  to  places  remote  from  the  present  capital  of  Texas;  and., 
therefore,  so  soon  as  there  are  in  the  north  part  of  Texas  people  enough  to  satisfy 
the  conditions  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  for  the  formation  of  new 
States,  a  new  State  may  be  formed;  and  then  we  shall  have  another  new  State  made. 
I  do  not  doubt  it  is  all  chalked  out  now. 

Then,  as  to  New  Mexico,  there  can  be  no  more  people  there  than  there  are  now. 
The  man  is  ignorant,  stupid,  who  can  look  upqn  the  map  and  see  what  that  country 
is,  and  suppose  that  it  can  have  more  people  than  it  has  now — some  sixty  or  seventy 
thousand.  It  is  an  old  settled  country — the  people  living  along  the  bottom  of  the 
valley,  upon  the  two  sides  of  the  garter  which  stretches  through  it,  and  is  full  only 
of  land  holders  and  miserable  peons;  and  it  can  sustain,  not  only  under  their  cultiva- 
tion,  but  under  any  cultivation  to  which  the  American  race  will  submit,  no  more 
people  than  are  there  now.  And  two  Senators  will  come  from  New  Mexico  with 
its  present  population  to  the  end  of  our  lives  and  those  of  our  children. 

And  now  how  is  it  with  California?    We  propose  to  take  California  from  the  47th 


13 

degree  of  north  latitude  to  the  32d.  We  propose  to  take  ten  degrees  along  the 
coast  of  the  Pacific.  All  along  the  coast  for  that  great  distance  are  settlements  and 
villages  and  ports;  and  back  all  is  wilderness  and  barrenness,  and  Indian  country. 
But  if,  just  about  St.  Francisco,  and  perhaps  Monterey,  emigrants  enough  should 
settle  to  make  up  one  State,  then  the  people,  500  miles  off,  would  have  another 
State.  And  so  this  disproportion  of  the  Senate  to  the  people  will  go  on,  and  must 
go  on,  and  we  cannot  prevent  it. 

I  say,  sir,  that,  according  to  my  conscientious  conviction,  we  are  now  fixing  on 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  its  frame  of  government,  a  monstrosity — 
a  disfiguration,  an  enormity!  Sir,  I  hardly  dare  trust  myself.  I  don't  know  but  I 
may  be  under  some  delusion.  I  don't  know  but  my  head  is  turned.  It  may  be  the 
weakness  of  mine  eyes  that  forms  this  monstrous  apparition!  But,  if  I  may  trust 
myself — if  I  may  persuade  myself  that  I  am  in  my  right  mind — then  it  does 
appear  to  me  that  we,  in  this  Senate,  have  been,  and  are  acting,  and  are  likely  to 
be  acting  hereafter,  and  immediately,  a  part  which  will  form  the  most  remarkable 
epoch  in  the  history  of  our  country. 

I  hold  it  to  be  enormous,  flagrant,  an  outrage  upon  all  the  principles  of  popular 
Republican  government,  and  on  the  elementary  provisions  of  the  Constitution  under 
wrhich  we  live,  and  which  we  have  sworn  to  support. 

But  then,  sir,  what  relieves  the  case  from  this  enormity?  What  is  our  reliance?" 
Why,  it  is  that  we  stipulate  that  these  new  States  shall  only  be  brought  in  at  a  suit 
able  time.  And  pray,  wrhat  is  to  constitute  the  suitableness  of  time?  Who  is  to 
judge  of  it?  I  tell  you,  sir,  that  suitable  time  will  come  when  the  preponderance  of 
party  power  here  makes  it  necessary  to  bring  in  new  States!  Be  assured  it  will  be 
a  suitable  time  when  votes  are  wanted  in  this  Senate.  We  have  had  some  little  ex 
perience  of  that;  Texas  came  in  at  a  "suitable  time,"  a  very  suitable  time!  Texas  was 
finally  admitted  in  December,  1845.  My  friend  near  me  here,  for  whom  I  have  a 
great  regard,  whose  acquaintance  I  have  cultivated  with  pleasure,  (Mr.  RUSK,) 
took  his  seat  in  March,  1846,  with  his  colleague.  In  July,  1846,  these  two  Texan 
votes  turned  the  balance  in  the  Senate,  and  overthrew  the  Tariff  of  1842,  in  my 
judgment  the  best  system  of  revenue  ever  established  in  this  country. 

Gentlemen  on  the  opposite  side  think  otherwise.  They  think  it  fortunate.  They 
think  that  was  a  suitable  time,  and  they  mean  to  take  care  that  other  times  shall  be 
equally  suitable.  I  understand  it  perfectly  well.  That's  the  difference  of  opinion 
between  me  and  these  honorable  gentlemen.  To  their  policy,  their  objects  and 
their  purposes,  the  time  was  suitable,  and  the  aid  was  efficient  and  decisive. 

Sir,  in  1850  perhaps  a  similar  question  may  be  agitated  here.  It  is  not  likely  to 
be  before  that  time,  but  agitated  it  will  be  then,  unless  a  change  in  the  administra 
tion  of  the  Government  shall  take  place.  According  to  my  apprehension,  looking 
at  general  results  as  flowing  from  our  established  system  of  commerce  and  revenue, 
at  about  1850,  in  two  years  from  this,  we  shall  probably  be  engaged  in  a  new  re 
vision  of  our  system: — in  the  \vorkof  establishing,  if  we  can,  a  tariff  of  specific  du 
ties;  of  protecting,  if  we  can,  our  domestic  industry  and  the  manufactures  of  the 
country;  m  the  work  of  preventing,  if  we  can,  the  overwhelming  flood  of  foreign 
importations.  Suppose  that  to  be  part  of  the  future: — that  would  be  exactly  the 
"suitable  time,"  if  necessary,  for  two  Senators  from  New  Mexico  to  make  their 
appearance  here! 

But,  again,  we  hear  other  halcyon,  soothing  tones,  which  quiet  none  of  my 
alarms,  assuage  none  of  my  apprehensions,  commend  me  to  my  nightly  rest  with 
no  more  resignation.  And  that  is,  the  plea  that  we  may  trust  the  popular  branch  of 
the  Legislature,  we  may  look  to  the  House  of  Representatives — to  the  Northern  and 
Middle  States,  and  even  the  sound  men  of  the  South — and  trust  them  to  take  care 
that  new  States  be  not  admitted  sooner  than  they  should  be,  or  for  party  purposes. 
T  am  compelled,  by  experience,  to  distrust  all  such  reliances.  If  we  cannot  rely 
*JL  ourselves,  when  we  have  the  clear  constitutional  authority  competent  to  carry 
"us  through,  and  the  motives  intensely  powerful,  I  beg  to  know  how  we  can  rely  on 
others?  Have  we  more  reliance  on  the  patriotism,  the  firmness  of  others,  than  on 

our  own? 

Besides,  experience  shows  us  that  things  of  this  sort  may  be  sprung  upon  Con- 


14 

gress  and  the  people.  It  was  so  in  the  case  of  Texas.  It  was  so  in  the  Twenty- 
eighth  Congress.  The  members  of  that  Congress  were  not  chosen  to  decide  the 
question  of  Annexation  or  no  Annexation.  They  came  in  on  other  grounds,  politi 
cal  and  party,  and  were  supported  for  reasons  not  connected  with  this  question. 
What  then?  The  Administration  sprung  upon  them  the  question  of  Annexation. 
It  obtained  a  snap  judgment  upon  it,  and  carried  the  measure  of  Annexation.  That 
is  indubitable,  as  I  could  show  by  many  instances,  of  which  I  shall  state  only  one. 

Four  gentlemen  from  the  State  of  Connecticut  were  elected  before  the  question 
arose,  belonging  to  the  dominant  party.  They  had  not  been  here  long  before  they 
were  committed  to  Annexation;  and  when  it  was  known  in  Connecticut  that  Annex 
ation  was  in  contemplation,  remonstrances,  private,  public,  and  legislative,  were 
littered  in  tones  that  any  one  could  hear  who  could  hear  thunder.  Did  they  move 
them?  Not  at  all.  Every  one  of  them  voted  for  Annexation!  The  election  came 
on,  and  they  were  all  turned  out  to  a  man.  But  what  did  those  care  for  that  who 
had  had  the  benefit  of  their  votes?  Such  agencies,  if  it  be  not  more  proper  to  call 
them  such  instrumentalities,  retain  respect  no  longer  than  they  continue  to  be  useful. 

Sir,  we  take  New  Mexico  and  California — who  is  weak  enough  to  suppose  that 
there's  an  end?  Don't  we  hear  it  avowed  every  day,  that  it  would  be  proper  also 
to  take  Sonora,  Tamaulipas,  and  other  provinces,  States  of  Northern  Mexico?  Who 
thinks  that  the  hunger  for  dominion  will  stop  here  of  itself?  It  is  said  to  be  sure 
that  our  present  acquisitions  will  prove  so  lean  and  unsatisfactory  that  we  shall  seek 
no  further.  In  my  judgment,  we  may  as  well  say  of  a  rapacious  animal,  that  if  he 
has  made  one  unproductive  hunt,  he  will  not  try  for  a  better  foray. 

But  farther.  There  are  some  things  one  can  argue  against  with  temper,  and  sub 
mit  to,  if  overruled,  without  mortification.  There  are  other  things  that  seem  to 
affect  one's  consciousness  of  being  a  sensible  man,  and  to  imply  a  disposition  to  im 
pose  upon  his  common  sense.  And  of  this  class  of  topics,  or  pretences,  I  have 
never  heard  of  any  thing,  and  I  cannot  conceive  of  any  thing,  more  ridiculous  in  it 
self,  more  absurd,  and  more  afFrontive  to  all  sober  judgment,  than  the  cry  that  we 
are  getting  indemnity,  indemnity,  by  the  acquisition  of  New  Mexico  and  California. 
I  hold  they  are  not  worth  a  dollar:  and  we  pay  for  them  vast  sums  of  money!  We 
have  expended,  as  every  body  knows,  large  treasures  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war; 
and  now  what  is  to  constitute  this  indemnity?  What  do  gentlemen  mean  by  it? 
Now,  sir,  let  us  see  how  this  stands  a  little.  We  get  a  country — we  get,  in  the 
first  instance,  a  cession,  or  an  acknowledgment  of  boundary,  (I  care  not  which  way 
you  state  it,)  of  the  country  between  the  Nueces  and  the  Rio  Grande.  What  this 
country  is,  appears  from  a  publication  made  by  a  gentleman  in  the  other  House, 
(Major  GAINES.)  He  says  the  whole  country  is  worth  nothing. 

•  "  The  country  from  the  Nueces  to  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  is  poor,  sterile,  sandy,  find  barren, 
with  not  a  single  tree  of  any  size  or  value  on  our  whole  route.  The  only  tree  which  we  saw,  was  the 
musquit  tree,  and  very  few  of  these.  The  musquit  is  a  small  tree,  resembling  an  old  and  decayed 
peach  tree.  The  whole  country  may  be  truly  called  a  perfect  waste,  uninhabited  and  uninhabitable. 
There  is  not  a  drop  of  running  water  between  the  two  rivers,  except  in  the  two  small  streams  of  San 
Salvador  and  Santa  Gartrudus,  and  these  only  contain  water  in  the  rainy  season.  Neither  of  them 
had  running  water  when  we  passed  them.  The  chaparral  commences  within  forty  or  fifty  miles  of  the 
Rio  Grande.  This  is  poor,  rocky,  and  sandy  ;  covered  with  prickley  pear,  thistles,  and  almost  every 
sticking  thing — constituting  a  thick  and  perfectly  impenetrable  undergrowth.  For  any  useful  or  agri 
cultural  purpose,  the  country  is  not  worth  a  sous. 

"  So  far  as  we  were  able  to  form  any  opinion  of  this  desert  upon  the  other  routes  which  had  been 
travelled,  its  character,  every  where  between  the  two  rivers,  is  pretty  much  the  same.  We  learned  that 
the  routes  pursued  by  General  Taylor,  south  of  ours,  was  through  a  country  similar  to  that  through 
which  we  passed  ;  as  also  was  that  travelled  by  General  Wool  from  San  Antonio  to  Presidio,  on  the 
Rio  Grande.  From  what  we  both  saw  and  heard,  the  whole  command  came  to  the  conclusion  which 
I  have  already  expressed — that  it  was  worth  nothing.  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  I  would  not 
hazard  the  life  of  one  valuable  and  useful  man  for  every  foot  of  land  between  San  Patricio  and  the  val 
ley  of  the  Rio  Grande.  The  country  is  not  now  and  can  never  be  of  the  slightest  value." 

He  has  been  there  lately.  He  is  a  competent  observer.  He  is  contradicted  by  nobody 
And  so  far  as  that  country  is  concerned,  I  take  it  for  granted  that  it  is  notworth  a  dollar^ 

Now  of  New  Mexico — what  of  that  ?  Forty -nine  fiftieths,  at  least,  of  the  whole 
of  New  Mexico,  are  a  barren  waste — a  desert  plain  of  mountain,  with  no  wood,  no 
timber  : — little  faggots  for  lighting  a  fire  are  carried  thirty  or  forty  miles  on  mules  ; 
there  is  no  natural  fall  of  rains  there  as  in  temperate  climates.  It  is  Asiatic  in  scenery 


15 

•altogether — enormously  high  mountains,  running  up  some  of  them  10,000  feet,  with 
narrow  valleys  at  their  bases,  through  which  streams  sometimes  trickle  along.  A 
strip — a  garter  winds  along  through,  through  which  runs  the  Rio  Grande,  from  far 
-away  up  in  the  Rocky  mountains  to  latitude  33,  a  distance  of  three  or  four  hundred 
miles.  There  these  60,000  persons  are.  In  the  mountains  on  the  right  and  left, 
are  streams  which,  obeying  the  natural  tendency,  as  laterals,  should  flow  into  the 
Rio  Grande,  and  which,  in  certain  seasons,  when  rains  are  abundant,  do,  some  of 
them,  actually  reach  the  Rio  Grande ;  while  the  greater  part  always,  and  all  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  year,  never  reach  an  outlet  to  the  sea,  but  are  absorbed  in  the 
sands  and  desert  plains  of  the  country.  There  is  no  cultivation  there.  There  is 
cultivation  where  there  is  artificial  watering  or  irrigation,  and  no  where  else.  Men 
can  live  only  in  the  narrow  valley,  and  in  the  gorges  of  the  mountains  which  rise 
round  it,  and  not  along  the  course  of  the  streams  which  lose  themselves  in  the  sands. 

•  Now  there  is  no  public  domain  in  New  Mexico— not  a  foot  of  land,  to  the  soil  of  which  we  shall 
)btam  title.  Not  an  acre  becomes  ours  when  the  country  becomes  ours.  More  than  that — the  coun 
try  is  full  of  people,  such  as  they  are.  There  is  not  the  least  thing  in  it  to  invite  settlement  from  the 
fertile  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  And  I  undertake  to  say  there  would  not  be  two  hundred  families  of 
persons,  who  would  emigrate  from  the  United  States  to"  New  Mexico,  for  agricultural  purposes,  in 
fifty  years.  They  could  not  live  there.  Suppose  they  were,  to  cultivate  the  lands;  they  could  only 
make  them  productive  in  a  slight  degree  by  irrigation  or  artificial  watering.  The  people  there  produce 
little,  and  live  on  little.  That  is  not  the  characteristic,  I  take  it,  of  the  people  of  the  Eastern  or  of  the 
Middle  States,  or  of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi.  They  produce  a  good  deal,  and  they  consume  a 
good  deal. 

Again,  sir,  New  Mexico  is  not  like  Texas.     I  have  hoped  and  I  still  hope  that  Texas  will  be  filled  up 
from  among  ourselves,  not  with  Spaniards ;  no\  with  peons— tiiat  its  inhabitants  will  not  be.MexicanV 
landlords,  with  troops  of  slaves,  preedial  or  otherwise. 

Mr.  RUSK  here  rose  and  said  he  disliked  to  interrupt  the  Senator,  and  therefore  he  had  said  nothing 
while  he  was  describing  the  country  between  the  Nueces  and  the  Rio  Grande  ;  but  he  wished  now  to 
say  that  when  that  country  comes  to  be  known,  it  will  be  found  to  be  as  valuable  as  any  part  of  Texas. 
The  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  is  valuable  from  its  source  to  its  mouth.  But  he  did  not  look  upon  that 
as  indemnity  ;  he  claimed  that  as  the  tight  of  Texas.  So  far  as  the  Mexican  population  is  concerned, 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  it  in  Texas  ;  and  it  comprises  many  respectable  persons,  wealthy,  intelligent, 
and  distinguished.  A  good  many  are  now  moving  in  from  New  Mexico  and  settling  in  Texas. 

Mr.  WEBSTER.  I  take  what  I  say  from  Major  GAI.VES.  But  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  any  part  of  New 
Mexico  is  fit  for  the  foot  of  civilized  man.  And  I  am  glad,  moreover,  that  there  are  some  persons  in 
New  Mexico  who  are  not  so  besotted  with  their  miserable  condition  as  not  to  make  an  effort  to  come 
out  of  their  country,  and  get  into  a  better. 

^Sir,  I  would,  if  I  had  time,  call  the  attention  of  the  Senate  to  an  instructive  speech  made  in  the  other 
House  by  Mr.  SMITH,  of  Connecticut.  He  seems  to  have  examined  all  the  authorities,  to  have  con 
versed  with  all  the  travellers,  to  have  corresponded  with  all  our  agents.  His  speech  contains  all  their 
•communications ;  and  I  commend  it  to  every  man  in  the  United  States,  who  wishes  to  know  what  we 
are  about  to  acquire  by  the  annexation  of  New  Mexico. 

New  Mexico  is  secluded — isolated — a  place  by  itself, — in  the  midst  and  at  the  foot  of  vast  moun 
tains,  five  hundred  miles  from  the  settled  part  of  Texas,  and  as  far  from  any  where  else  !  It  does  not 
belong  any  where  !  It  has  no  belongings  about  it !  At  this  moment  it  is  absolutely  more  retired  and 
.*hm  out  from  communication  with  the  civilized  world,  than  the  Sandwich  Islands  or  other  islands  of 
the  Pacific,  sea.  In  seclusion  and  remoteness  New  Mexico  may  press  hard  on  die  character  and  con 
dition  of  Typee.  And  its  people  are  infinitely  less  elevated,  in  morals  and  condition,  than  the  people 
of  the  Sandwich  Islands.  We  had  much  better  have  Senators  from  Oahu.  Far  less  intelligent  are 
they  than  the  better  class  of  our  Indian  neighbors.  Commend  me  to  the  Cherokees— to  the  Choc- 
taws  ;— if  you  plea.se,  speak  of  the  Pawnees,  of  the  Snakes,  the  Flatfeet,  of  any  thing  but  the  Digging 
Indians,  and  1  will  be  satisfied  not  to  take  the  people  of  New  Mexico.  Have  they  any  notions  of  our 
institutions,  or  of  any  free  institutions?  Have  they  any  notion  of  popular  government?  Not  the 
•slightest !  Not  the  slightest  on  earth  !  When  the  question  is  asked — what  will  be  their  constitution, 
Jt  is  farcical  to  talk  of  such  people  making  a  constitution  for  themselves.  They  do  not  know  the 
meaning  of  the  term — they  do  not  know  its  import.  They  know  nothing  at  all  "about  it ;  and  I  can 
u  you,  sir,  that  when  they  are  made  a  Territory  and  are  to  be  made  a  State,  such  a  constitution  as 
the  Executive  power  of  this  Government  may  think  fit  to  send  them,  will  be  sent  and  will  be  adopted. 
The  constitution  of  our  fellow  citizens  of  New  Mexico  will  be  framed  in  the  city  of  Washington. 

Now  what  says  in  regard  to  al  Mexico  Col.  HARDIN,  that  most  lamented  and  distinguished  officer, 
t>pnorai>Iy  known  as  a  member  of  the  other  House,  and  who  has  fallen  gallantly  fighting  in  the  ser-    ' 
vice  of  his  country  ?     Here  is  his  description : 

"  The  whole  country  is  miserably  watered.     Large  districts  have  no  water  at  all.     The  streams  are  small 

E"d  d  great  distances  apart.     One  day  we  marched  on  the  roud  from  Monclova  to  Parras  thirty-Jive  miles 
•jfcouf  icater,  a  pretty  severe  day's  march  for  infantry. 
'"  Grass  is  very  scarce,  and  indeed  there  is  none  at  all  in  many  regions  for  miles  square.     Its  place 
is  supplied  witli  prickly  pear  and  thorny  bushes.    There  is  not  one  acre  in  two  hundred,  more  proba 
bly  not  one  in  five  hundred,  of  all  the  land  we  have  seen  in  Mexico,  which  can  ever  be  cultivated  ;  the 
greater  portion  of  it  is  the  most  desolate  region  I  could  ever  have  imagined.     The  pure  granite  hills  of 


16 

New  England  are  a  paradise  to  it,  for  they  are  without  the  thorny  briars  and  venomous  reptiles  whit 
infest  the  barbed  barrenness  of  Mexico.  The  good  land  and  cultivated  spots  in  Mexico  are  but  do) 
on  the  map.  Were  it  not  that  it  takes  so  very  little  to  support  a  Mexican,  and  that  the  land  which ; 
cultivated  yields  its  produce  with  little  labor,  it  would  be  surprising  how  its  sparse  population  is  su 
tained.  All  the  towns  we  have  visited,  with  perhaps  the  exception  of  Parras,  are  depopulating,  as 
also  the  whole  country. 

"The  people  are  on  a  par  with  their  land.     One  in  200  or  500  is  rich,  and  lives  like  a  nabob  ;/ 
rest  are  peons,  or  servants  sold  for  debt,  who  work  for  their  masters,  and  are  as  subservient  as 
slaves  of  the  South,  and  look  like  Indians,  and,  indeed,  are  not  more  capable  of  self-governmer 
One  man,  Jacobus  Sanchez,  owns  three-fourths  of  all  the  land  our  column  has  passed  over  in  Mexic 
We  are  told  we  have  seen  the  best  part  of  Northern  Mexico  ;  if  so,  the  whole  of  it  is  not  worth  mucj 

"  I  came  to  Mexico  in  favor  of  getting  or  taking  enough  of  it  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  war. 
now  doubt  whether  all  Northern  Mexico  is  worth  the  expenses  of  our  column  of  3,000  men.     Tl 
expenses  of  the  war  must  be  enormous;  we  have  paid  enormous  prices  for  every  thing,  much  beyor 
the  usual  prices  of  the  country." 

There  it  is.     That's  all  North  Mexico  ;  and  New  Mexico  is  not  the  better  part  of  it. 

Sir,  there  is  a  recent  traveller,  not  unfriendly  to  the  United  States,  if  we  may  judge  from  his  worl 
for  he  commends  us  every  where — I  think  an  Englishman — named  RUXTON.  He  gives  an  account  < 
the  morals  and  the  manners  of  the  population  of  New  Mexico.  And,  Mr.  President  and  Senators, 
shall  take  leave  to  introduce  you  to  these  soon  to  be  your  respected  fellow  citizens  of  New  Mexico  : 

"  It  is  remarkable  that,  although  existing  from  the  earliest  times  of  the  .colonization  of  New  Me? 
co,  a  period  of  two  centuries,  in  a  state  of  continual  hostility  with  the  numerous  savage  tribes  of  Ij 
dians  who  surround  their  territory,  and  in  constant  insecurity  of  life  and  property  from  their  attack] 
being  also  far  removed  from  the  enervating  influences  of  large  cities,  and  in  their  isolated  situation  ej 
tirely  dependent  upon  their  own  resources,  the  inhabitants  are  totally  destitute  of  those  qualities  wv.icj 

reasons,  we  mi<jiit  natnrplh/  have  expected  to  distinguish  them,  and  are  as  deficient 
energy  of'character  and  physical  courage  as  they  are  in  all  tFie  moral  and  intellectual  qualities.     ] 
their  social  state,  but  one  degree  removed  from  the  veriest  savages,  they  might  take  a  lesson  even  froj 
these  in  morality  and  the  conventional  decencies  of  life.     Imposing  no  restraint  on  their  passions,] 
shameless  and  universal  concubinage  exists,  and  a  total  disregard  of  moral,  to  which  it  would  be  ir 
possible  to  find  a  parallel  in  any  country  calling  itself  civilized.     A  want  of  honorable  principle,  ai 
consummate  duplicity  and  treachery,  characterize  all  their  dealings.   Liars  by  nature,  they  are  treache 
ous  and  faithless  to  their  friends,  cowardly  and  cringing  to  their  enemies  ;  cruel,  as  all  cowards  arjj 
they  unite  savage  ferocity  with  their  want  of  animal  courage;  as  an  example  of  which,  their  recef 
massacre  of  Gov.  Bent,  and  other  Americans,  may  be  given — one  of  a  hundred  instances." 

These,  sir,  are  soon  to  be  our  beloved  countrymen ! 

Mr*.^President,  for  a  good  many  years  I  have  struggled  in  opposition  to  every  thing  which  I  thougl 
tended  to  strengthen  the  arm  of  Executive  power.  I  think  it  is  growing  more  and  more  formidabj 
every  day-  And  I  think  that  by  yielding  to  it  in  this,  as  in  other  instances,  we  give  it  a  strengf 
which  it  will  be  difficult  hereafter  to  resist.  I  think  that  it  is  nothing  less  than  the  fear  of  Executh 
power  which  induces  us  to  acquiesce  in  die  acquisition  of  territory — fear,  fear,  and  nothing  else. 

In  the  little  part  which  I  have  acted  in  public  life,  it  has  been  my  purpose  to  preserve  the  People 
the  United  States,  what  the  Constitution  designed  to  make  them — one  people — one  in  interest,  one 
character,  and  one  in  political  feeling.     We  depart  from  that — we  break  it  all  up.     What  sympathjj 
can  there  be  between  the  people  of  Mexico  and  California  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley  of  tl: 
Mississippi  and  the  Eastern  States  in  the. choice  of  a  President?     Do  they  know  the  same  man? 
they  concur  in  any  general  constitutional  principles  ?    Not  at  all. 

Arbitrary  governments  may  have  territories  and  distant  possessions,  because  arbitrary  governmenj 
may  rule  them  by  different  laws  and  different  systems.     Russia  may  rule  in  the  Ukraine  and  the  pr 
vinces  of  the  Caucasus  and  Kamschatka  by  different  codes,  ordinances,  or  ukases. 

We  can  do  no  such  thing.     They  must  'ne  of  us — part  of  us — or  else  strangers. 

I  think  I  see  that  in  progress  which  will  disfigure  and  deform  the  Constitution.     While  these  ter 
tories  remain  territories,  they  will  be  a  trouble  and  an  annoyance ;  they  will  draw  after  them  vast 
penses  ;  they  will  probably  require  as  many  troops  as  we  have  maintained  during  the  last  twenty  ye 
to  defend  them  against  the  Indian  tribes.  \Ve  must  maintain  an  army  at  that  immense  distance.  Wh< 
they  shall  become  States,  they  will  be  still  more  likely  to  give  us  trouble. 

1  think  I  see  a  course  adopted  which  is  likely  to  turn  the  Constitution  of  the"  land  into  a  defon 
monster — into  a  curse  rather  than  a  blessing  ;  in  fact,  a  frame  of  an  unequal  government,  not  foundc 
on  popular  representation,  not  founded  on  equality,  but  on  the  grossest  inequality;  and  I  think  it  wj 
go  on,  or  that  there  is  danger  that  it  will  go  on,  until  this  Union  shall  fall  to  pieces. 

I  resist  it— to-day,  and  always !     Whoever  falters,  or  whoever  flies, — I  continue  the  contest ! 

I  know,  sir,  that  all  the  porters  ;>.re  disco. -.aigiug.  Would  to  God  I  could  auspicate  good  infli 
ences.  Would  to  God  that  those  who  think  with"  me,  and  myself,  could  hope  for  stronger  supporj 
Would  we  could  stand  where  we  desire  to  stand.  I  see  the  signs  are  sinister.  But  with  few,  < 
alone,  my  position  is  fixed  !  If  there  were  time,  I  would  gladly  awaken  the  country.  I  believe  tl 
country  might  be  awakened  ; — but  it  may  be  too  late.  But  supported,  or  unsupported,  by  the  blessii 
of  God,  I  shall  do  my  duty.  1  see  well  enough  all  the  adverse  indications.  But  I  am  sustained  by 
deep  and  a  conscientious  sense  of  duty.  And  while  supported  by  that  feeling,  and  while  such 
interests  are  at  stake,  I  defy  auguries,  and  ask  no  omen  but  my  country's  cause ! 


